Ampersands in database URLs problem

[Elizabeth A Reiten]

Hi everyone!

I have what I suspect is a not-unusual problem, and was hoping someone had 
some insight on the matter...

In my current site conversion, I'm attempting to validate all of my HTML 
against the W3C's HTML Markup Validation Service (http://validator.w3.org).  I'm doing well on most things, but where I'm running into a snag is 
with a few database vendors using ampersands in their URLs.  We don't 
display our URLs; they're on the back side, but as I understand the 
standards, ALL characters (or character encoding) need to match up with 
the declared DOCTYPE, whether displayed or not.

Now, everybody seems to be using ampersands in their URLs these days; I 
understand that it often is a consequence of database-driven sites. 
However, I've been able to convert the "&" in a URL to "&" with no 
access difficulties in all but a few cases; CSA, Chadwyck, SilverPlatter, 
BiblioLine, and Knovel.  When I encode the ampersands in any of these 
vendors' URLs, it actually blocks access to the database.

Has anyone else run into this type of problem?  If so, how did you resolve 
it?  Or is it, as I was told by the CSA developer I talked to yesterday, 
actually not a problem?  I thought I'd drop y'all a note to see if this is 
a familiar situation to anyone.  I've also dug through the W3C's website, 
but I haven't found anything yet.  I'll be posting to the forum this 
afternoon, most likely.

Thanks in advance!

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Beth Reiten, Librarian
Digital Library Services
Edmon Low Library
Oklahoma State University
Phone: 405-744-9109
Email: reitene at okstate.edu